Clementine Cake w/Chocolate Ganache
I knew I had to make this cake as soon as I read the instructions. Boil entire clementines for two whole hours and then throw them all in a food processor, as is? It was too intriguing not to. Joe had also just bought a gigantic bag of clementines from Costco. I love oranges and clementines and tangerines, but I hate when they're sour. And I hate that it's really hard to tell when they're going to be sour or sweet so I'm usually very cautious. I'll wait for someone to give me a sweet one before I deem it safe to purchase my own, and even then, there's no guarantee. Le sigh. First world problems, fo sho.
Anyway, these were a bit on the sour side and since we had so many, I figured it'd be a good time to make this cake since it uses up five of them at once.
I used a simple chocolate ganache to top this cake--I can't stand the combination of orange and chocolate but I have plenty of friends who do, and I wanted to get out of my 'glaze and citrus' comfort zone. The ganache is simple and didn't take away from the citrus taste, whatsoever.
The cake is thick and dense but not in a bad way. It's also ultra-moist. From the comments I read, there were mixed opinions about this. I think it's a matter of preference...this cake definitely isn't my favorite, but it was perfect for an afternoon snack, and my friends loved it, so go figure.
I just love that you can throw all this into the food processor and then pour it immediately into a baking pan. The ideal everyday cake, beautiful in its simplicity.
It's also gluten-free, yipee!
Clementine Cake w/Chocolate Ganache
From Nigella
Makes one 8 or 9-inch cake
375 grams clementines (about 5 clementines)
5 large eggs
225 grams white sugar*
250 grams ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
*Note: If you have ultra sweet clementines, feel free to lower the sugar amount.
Bring the clementines to a boil in a saucepan of water for about 2 hours.
Drain and cool.
Cut each clementine in half, and throw out any seeds.
Dump all the clementines into a food processor until combined.
Add in the rest of the ingredients, or whisk them by hand, if you prefer.
Pour into a well-greased springform pan with parchment paper on the bottom (I didn't use parchment paper but served the cake on the pan itself so I didn't have to worry about the bottom).
Bake 40-50 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. If the top is over-browning, you may want to use foil to prevent it, although I didn't have this issue.
Remove from the oven and let cool completely before eating.
It tastes better the next day!
Optional Chocolate Ganache
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 tbs butter
1/2 tsp corn syrup
In a double boiler, heat all ingredients until melted and combined.
Let cool until slightly warm, and then spread over the cake with a spatula, letting it spill over the sides.
looooved the texture of this cake! yumyum!
ReplyDeleteI've made Nigella's clementine cake before, isn't it gorgeous? Love your simple chocolate ganache on top too, yum!
ReplyDeleteThanks! :)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI've never really used almond flour. If you didn't have almond flour, could you substitute regular flour? I just bought a bunch of clementines (they are sweet) and would love to put them to good use.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your help.
@Vaish, You might want to google the conversion before doing it, although I don't see why it wouldn't work... lemme know if you try it!
ReplyDeleteAlternatively, you could process almonds till they're ground and maybe do half almonds, half flour? I'm only worried the cake might turn out rather dense with all flour... hope this helps!